Structural members formed of metal and timber



May 27, 1947. GREEN 2,421,197

STRUCTURAL MEMBERS FORMED METAL AND TIMB ER Filed May 26,1945 4Sheets-Sheet 1 oou lasHarold Green m MM JW AT Tv.

May 27, 1947, D. H. GREEN 2,421,197

STRUCTURAL MEMBERS FORMED- OF METAL AND TIMBER Filed May 26, 1945 4Sheets-Sheet 2 May 27, 1947. D. H. GREEN STRUCTURAL MEM BERS FORMED .OFMETAL AND TIMBER Filed May 2 1945 4 Sheets-Sheet s INVENTOR/ DougmsHumid Green D. H. GREEN May 27, 1947.

STRUCTURAL MEMBERS FORMED OF METAL AND TIMBER 'F ile d May 26. 1945 4Sheets-Sheet 4 \NVE NTOE/ DWSIQ; Hqvold Green 7 m A L -Pw R Y.

Patented May 27, 1947 OFFICE STRUCTURAL MEMBERS FORMED F METAL ANDTIMBER Douglas Harold Green, London, England ApplicationMay 26, 1945,Serial No. 595,897 In Great Britain May 16, 1944 Claims. 1

This invention relates to improvements in structural members such asbeams and joists of the well known type comprising members formed ofstraight metal elements such as rods, angle irons or T irons, and bentmetal zigzag lattices welded between two straight elements. Thesemembers We term for convenience ladders. Two oppositely placed laddersmay be welded to two further bent zigzag lattices to form four sided boxstructures.

It is difficult and expensive to fix other building materials such asboards and panels to such all metal structural members. Timber is theideal material to which to attach such boards or panels because it canbe nailed into and the additional materials can be attached to it at anypoint.

According to the present invention a timber fixing is located betweenone edge of one such ladder and one edge of another such ladder, and

metal pins traversing the timber fixing are secured to the edges of theladders, preferably by welding them thereto.

In a structural member of four sided box section, the timber fixings maybe secured between the ladders at two opposite sides, or there may beone timber fixing only, and the opposite side may be of zigzag bentlattice welded to the ladders.

In conjunction with structural members according to the presentinvention I prefer to use end shoes, which are adapted to fit closelyover the ends of the assembled ladders and timber fixings and to holdsame as in a jig during the welding of the ladders to the pins of thetimber fixings.

The shoes are also adapted to be themselves welded to the ladders.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Fig.1 is a perspective view of a part of a structural member according tothe present inventlon.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of part of the same member.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the same.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing on an enlarged scale one form ofend shoe in position on the structural member and Fig. 5 is a similarview of another form of end shoe.

The two metal side members or ladders of the beam shown in Fig. 1 eachcomprise a pair of straight metal rods I, I and 2, 2, respectively, witha zigzag bent lattice 3 of thinner rod between the rods I, I and asimilar lattice 4 between the rods 2, 2, the lattices and their straightro ds 2 being welded together at the bends of the lattices as shown at5, 5.

Between the two ladders are held two timber fillets 6,, 6, which aretraversed by a number of metal pins 1 at points lying between thecorners of the lattices. The ends of these pins extend beyond the twosides of the fillets 6 and are welded to the straight rods I, I and 2, 2of the ladders on the inner or oppositely disposed sides of these rods.

Over the ends of the structural member described are fitted and fixedshoes such for example as those illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5.

In Fig. 4, the shoe, of outwardly turned channel section, has a bodyportion 8, and inwardly turned upper and lower arms 9 and I0. These armshave outwardly turned flanges 9, 9 and ill, II! respectively, on theouter ends of which are formed stop members 9" and I0" respectively. Thewidth of channel of the shoes is such as to accommodate snugly the endsof the timber fillets 6, 6, while the straight rods of the ladders lieoutside the channel and upon or below the outwardly directed flanges 9'and Ill respectively.

The flanges 9 and III, or portions thereof as shown at 9" and 1', may beturned upwards or downwards respectively to hold the rods 1 and 2against lateral displacement.

The end shoe shown in Fig. 5 is of wider channel section, sufiic'ient toaccommodate the ends of the timber fillets with the ends of the straightrods of the ladders on either side of the fillets. On the lower inturnedarm ll of the shoe I2 is welded a bracket I3, the free end I4 of whichclamps the timber fillet I5 to the arm II, while a similar bracket I6 onthe inturned upper arm I! of the shoe clamps the upper timber fillet I8.

In both patterns of shoe apertures I9 and 20 respectively are providedto enable the shoes to be fastened to the shoes of other structuralmembers or to other parts of the structure.

A convenient method of fabricating and assembling the parts of thetimbered beam is the following. The two ladders are made on the latticebending and welding machine described in my co-pending applicationSerial No. 558,311, filed October 12, 1944. The two timber battens cutto correct length are drilled with holes at the required predeterminedcentres and the steel pins are driven into the holes. The end shoes areformed up in a press.

One ladder is laid fiat in a suitable jigging bench, the two battens arelaid edge upwards, one on each of the straight rods of the ladder, withthe lower ends of the pins against the inner sides of the rods, and thesecond ladder is laid flat upon the upper edges of the two battens. Theend shoes are then forced by pedal operation over the ends of theassembled beam while the parts are held in the correct position on thejigging bench. The beam with the end shoes can then be handled as aunit;it is turned through a right angle to bring the battens to the top andbottom and is passed to the welding machine in which the end shoes areresistance welded to the ends of the straight bars of the ladders andthe cross pins are welded to the bars.

The sequence of the welding operations is as follows. The operator feedsthe jigged beam into the welding machine into position to enable thewelding heads to weld the lower arm of the shoe to the bottom straightbars of the two ladders. The beam is then pushed manually until thefirst cross pin in the lower batten of the beam is in position to bewelded to the straight bars and the machine is then switched tocontinuous operation and welds all such lower pins in turn, the beambeing traversed through the machine automatically. The machine is thenswitched to single operation, and the lower fiange of the other end shoeis welded to bottom main bars. The beam is then drawn back through themachine manually, turned over and the other shoe arms and pins passedthrough the operations above described. The beam then passes to an arcwelder which welds the loose ends of the zigzag lattices to the endshoes.

With a shoe as shown in Fig. 4 the ends of the straight bars of theladders are welded to the flanges 9' and 10' of the shoe arms, whilewith a shoe as shown in Fig. 5 the ends of the bars may be welded eitherto the flanges of the shoe arms or to the inner faces of the arms H, ll.

During the progress of the beam through the welding machine pressure ispreferably applied to the two straight bars adjacent to the weldingheads, squeezing these bars tightly against the timber between them. Thewelding of the pins occurs while this pressure is maintained. When thepressure is released, the pins in turn are stressed in retaining themain bars tight to the timber against the reaction of the releasedtimber. In this sense the pins are prestressed.

The end shoes thus perform three functions:

(a) They give rigidity and sheer resistance to the end of the beam.

(1)) They position the elements forming the beam and clip them in thedesired position for handling.

Being holed for bolts at top, bottom, and end, they enable the beam tobe secured from any of these points when being fixed in a building.

In one practical construction, ladders are made up of two /2" diameterbars between which is welded the zigzag bent rod of diameter. The bendsare at 5%" pitch, i. e. they are welded to their bars at 11 intervals.The ladders are overall 6%" wide. The timber fillets are 3" by 1 throughthe greater width of which are driven pins of 4" rod, 4" long.

The timber fillets need not be used on both sides of the beam, but maybe used on only one side, the other side of the box member being formedfor instance by a zigzag bent rod welded between the straight rods atthe other edges of the ladders.

The timber fillets may be continuous or may be in short lengths.

It will be obvious that the timber fillets can be so placed, or themetal pins through the fillet can'be so placed, that the pins can resteither on the top and bottom edges of the ladders instead of within theedge rods as above described. Or adjoining pins may lie alternatelyabove and beneath the straight rods.

It'will further be understood that timber fixing fillets may if desiredbe mounted on the sides of a structural member all the sides of whichcomprise zigzag bent lattices, the timber overlying one of the latticesand the metal projections from the timber fillet being attached to thestraight rods between which the zigzag bent metal rod is fixed.

I claim:

1. Structural members comprising ladders formed of straight metalelements and bent metal lattices welded between the straight elementsand having a timber fixing located between one edge of one ladder andone edge of another ladder and metal pins traversing the timber fixingand secured to the edges of the ladders.

2. Structural members as claimed in claim 1 in box form and comprisingtwo ladders opposite to one another and at least one of the remainingtwo sides formed by the timber fixing.

3. Structural members as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pins are securedto the edges of the ladders by welding.

4. Structural members as claimed in claim 1 and comprising at least anend shoe fitted closely over the ends of the assembled ladders andtimber fixings welded to the ladders.

5. Structural members, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pins securedto the edges of the ladders hold said ladder edges in positions in whichthey are pressed on to the timber between them.

DOUGLAS HAROLD GREEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 810,220 Pierson Jan. 16, 19061,959,880 Sims May 22, 1934 2,092,988 Shodron Sept. 14, 1937 FOREIGNPATENTS Number Country Date 5,508 Great Britain Mar. 6, 1911

